Sesame Street Live

On Friday Nov. 30th, I took Adrienne to see Sesame Street Live: Elmo Makes Music. I wasn't sure how she would react to the characters. Turns out, she LOVED it! I had asked Jeff to go get tickets for the Thurs. show when the first went on sale. Well, he got her front row seats. They were great. We got to see everything and it wasn't real crowded, so it was nice.

When one of the monsters came down off stage and started shaking hands with the kids on the front row, I held Adrienne's hand out and let her "pet" the monster. After it had gone by, Adrienne looked at me like WOW! I like that! after that, she was mesmorized.

At intermission, they had a guy come up in front of the stage selling mylar balloons, in the shape of Elmo's face. Adrienne kept saying Elmo boon. Elmo boon. She wanted a balloon. I told her we would get one after the show, and she said OK.

Well, after the show, we started to leave. I had put her coat on, and was holding her hand. She pulled away from me and told me No, Elmo boon! The little stinker had remembered the balloon. So, mommy bought her the balloon. She was happy as a clam. I told her once we were in the car, she would have to hold it down so mommy could see, and she did. I told Jeff after I got her in bed, that I would have to take her back next year. She really enjoyed the show.

November

The girls & I were supposed to go to Richmond the first weekend in November to visit the Germains, but the van was acting up, so we put it off a couple of weeks. We had Adrienne's 2nd birthday party at the house. Her friend McKenna came over. Adrienne didn't quite know what to do about blowing out the candles, so McKenna helped.

Everyone loved the cake. It was in the shape of Pablo the Penguin from the Backyardigans. Everyone had a blue mouth after eating cake. But, I don't think they minded to much.

I forget how busy of a month November can be. With all the birthdays (3 in my house alone) and Thanksgiving, plus it's a VERY busy time for me at work.

We went to Nancy's for Thanksgiving since Thomas, Mandy & the girls were in town. I realized this is the first time in 36 years that I wasn't going to spend Thanksgiving with mom & Amy. Jeff, Kelli, Adrienne & I did go over to mom's for a little while, just to spend some time with her. It was still weird not being with mom's whole family on Thanksgiving day. But it was easier on everyone since some of us had to work the next day.

After work on Black Friday, I loaded the girls up in the truck (my van still wasn't working right) and we headed to Richmond to see the Germains, and to celebrate Zach & Adrienne's birthdays. We got up there about 10pm Friday night. We all went right to bed. Sat was a fun day. First we got up and went to the Children's Museum. OH WOW! that place is great! There wasn't a line for Santa, so we took the kids to get thier picture made. Well, the pictures would have turned out great if Kelli would have smiled, but she wouldn't do it. No matter how much I bribed or threatened.

Then we went and the kids played in the museum for a couple of hours. They painted pictures and "picked" apples. It was a lot of fun. I wish we had something like that here in Roanoke.

Then back to the Germains for naps for the little ones. While Adrienne & Zach took a nap, Kelli & Sami watched a movie and Drew (Carrie's husband) watched all 4 kids while she and I ran to a scrapbook store. It was great. they were having a big sale, and I got a few things. I found some great paper for the pictures we took at SeaWorld when we were in FL. I can't wait to get back to working on scrapbooks. It will be easier once the holidays are over and things settle back down a little bit.

After nap, we had dinner and then had a mini party for Zach & Adrienne.

They opened their presents to each other.

Then they had cupcakes and thought they were YUM.

We headed home Sunday morning. Sami wasn't too happy that we were leaving. But her mom reminded her that they are coming to Roanoke in 2 weeks. YEAH!!

October Update

I just realized it has been almost 2 months since I posted anything. We've had a lot happen in 2 months.

We went to the pumpkin patch in Christansburg this year. Mom & Christie went with us.

I wish Morgan could have gone, but she was with her mother that weekend. The kids had a blast.

They wandered around the first part of the corn maze a little bit. Every where that Kelli went, Adrienne had to follow. She loves her big sister.

Adrienne went to a birthday party for a little girl at daycare. McKenna is about 3 weeks older than Adrienne. Everyone (including her parents and me) are amazed at how much the girls look alike.

We seem to always do their hair the same way on the same days. Adrienne can't quite say McKenna, so she calls her Kenna.

Morgan did get to help us carve the pumpkin though. Adrienne wanted nothing to do with it. Kelli & Morgan were cleaning it out, and Adrienne would walk up and I asked if she wanted to help. She would just shake her head and say NO, then run off. So we did it without her.

Halloween was fun. Kelli was Jasmine. When we were in Disney over the summer, she wanted us to get her a Jasmine costume. Jeff & I kept telling her no. But we got it without her knowing and gave it to her for her birthday. So she wore that. Adrienne was a monkey. Nothing new there. We just gave her fur to go with the personality.

Well, that's the highlights for October.

A Surprise for the Girls

Well, actually Kelli knew about it before hand. On the 3rd, Amy & I took Delaney, Kelli & Morgan to see High School Musical on Ice. My friend Carrie had bought tickets for us to take Kelli & Sami. She bought them like 5 months ago, long before Drew lost his job and they had to move to Richmond. So, I bought the tickets from her and asked Amy & Delaney to go. And as a birthday present to Morgan, Jeff bought her a ticket right near us so she got to go. She actually got to sit beside us since no one else showed up to sit beside us. The girls had a blast. Kelli was up dancing and bopping to the music. She had a blast. Delaney didn't feel to good, her asthma was bothering her, but she had a good time. Morgan was thrilled. She loved it. She had been bugging Jeff to let her go for 3 months. We didn't tell her where we were going, we just went, so it was a nice surprise for her. Here are a few pictures I took. It was a great show. I actually enjoyed it myself more than I thought I would.

I felt kind of bad that Adrienne didn't get to go, but I don't think she would have sat still for it. But, we found out that Sesame Street Live is coming at the end of November, and she already has front row seats, courtesy of daddy. Jeff & I think she is going to love it, that or be petrified and scream her head off the whole time. I'll have to let you know.

We have been trying to figure out Halloween costumes, as that time is fast approaching. Well, Kelli informed Jeff & I that she wants to be Hammy, the squirrel from Over the Hedge. I knew there was no way we would find a squirrel costume around here. We did find a monkey costume for Adrienne. So Kelli is going to be Jasmine. She got this incredible costume for her birthday. Jeff bought it when we took the kids to Disney over the summer. So, we are going to put a vest and a fez on Adrienne in her monkey costume, and she can be Abo. Or I'm going to put a rainbow W on her front and make her a Webkinz. If you don't know what a Webkinz is, it's a stuffed animal you buy, and it comes with a code. You go to a website and put in the code, and you get to play with a virtual pet online. It's actually really cute. There are all kinds of things you can do. You have to feed it, and bathe it. You have to play games to win money to buy it food and clothes. You have to take it to the vet for check ups and if it's sick. Kelli has fun with her. Morgan is getting one from Amy for her birthday. So she'll have one to play with soon too.

I've been trying to organize my area upstairs where I work on scrapbooks and hopefully/eventually sewing and other crafty stuff. Well, I got a small bookshelf to put some of my books on to get them out of boxes. Yes, we've been here a year and I STILL have boxes I haven't unpacked. Well, Adrienne decided to help me assemble the bookshelf as you can see.

She thinks she is quite the little carpenter. She was trying anyway. She even helped me put it in place and start putting all my books on it. Then she decided that the white was too plain and tried to add a little color to it. Blue, I think it was. Fortunately, her crayons are washable.

The Germains came in this past weekend. Kelli was so excited to see Sami when she got here. They came down of Friday night. They actually got to the house before I did. Carrie called me as they were driving past to tell me that they beat me to the house. Hannah, one of the kids from daycare, and her mom & dad came over for a couple of hours. Sami and Kelli were so excited to see her. And of course Adrienne was thrilled that Zach was here. After the Mixons (Hannah and her parents), we got the little ones in bed. It took us until 11:30pm to get Kelli and Sami to quit talking and playing and go to sleep. We got up Saturday and went to Keegan's birthday party at the skating rink. Keegan is another one of the daycare crew. The girls had a good time. Even Zach & Adrienne had a good time, although they got a little bored towards the end.

We took the girls back to the house, then Carrie & I took the little ones to AC Moore for a little while. When we got back, Morgan, Kelli, Sami and the boys across the street were washing Jeff's truck. Kelli & Sami were soaked head to toe, but they were having a blast. Jeff went to the store and got steaks for all the adults & Morgan for dinner. They were great! We actually got the girls in bed and asleep by about 10:00. We were impressed. Jeff, Carrie & I sat up watching football until 11:30. There were some great college games on. We got up on Sunday and Jeff made everyone omlets. YUM! He makes great omlets! While Carrie was trying to pack, Zach & Adrienne decided to jump and play on Morgan's bed. They had a blast. They were so cute in their matching Little Einstein pajamas. It's hard to see from these pictures, but Adriennes has

June and Annie (the two girls) on hers. And Zach has Quincy and Leo (the two boys) on his. Both sets have Rocket all over them. They both love wearing their "Rocket" PJ's.

When it was time for the Germains to leave, Adrienne started crying. She wasn't ready for Zach to leave. Fortunately, she took her nap, and wasn't quite so upset when she got up.

Jeff took Kelli to softball on Sunday. She loved having him all to herself and especially at softball.

I had to stay home from work today. Adrienne woke up with a bad cough. She has actually had it off and on for the last couple of weeks, but it seemed worse this morning. So I stayed home with her and took her to the doctor. Turns out it was a good thing I did. She has an ear infection. I guess we caught it early enough this time.

Tomorrow it's back to the routine.

,

Whole lot of not much

Well, there hasn't been a whole lot going on, but at the same time it seems like I haven't had time to slow down for more than a few minutes. Kelli is playing softball this fall. Actually it's more like a softball clinic (?). They meet every Sunday from 1-2 for 5 weeks (I think). There have been between 18 & 20 girls for the first couple of weeks, so they have about a 10 minute warm up, then they divide into 2 teams and everyone gets a chance to bat and they all get a chance in the field. It's funny to watch Kelli now. Back in the spring, when she was in the field, she wouldn't pay attention to what was going on in the game. Now she gets out there and she watches who is batting and where the ball goes. She really seems to enjoy it. She & Morgan started dance a couple of weeks ago too. And they love being back in that. You should see my calendar with all of the kids social activities. I have to put it on the kitchen wall just so Jeff and I can keep up. Adrienne of course thinks that wherever Kelli is and whatever Kelli is doing that she (Adrienne) is supposed to be doing it too. Adrienne thinks she is as big as the others. I have fun trying to keep her off the softball field or out of the dance studio.

The Germains are coming in on Friday to spend the weekend with us. The girls are so excited. Kelli and Sami have a birthday party to go to on Saturday, but I think Kelli is more excited that Sami is coming to stay here for a couple of days than she is about the party. When I tell Adrienne that Zach is coming to see her, her whole face just lights up and she starts looking around saying Zach, Zach. I'll take lots of pictures while they are here and post them (hopefully) on Sunday.

The other wonderful exciting news is that are pool has a major leak. Not fun. We have lost over half the water in the pool in just over a week. Needless to say, we've had to shut down the pool for the summer. The girls weren't too happy about that, especially when it was about 90 here over the weekend. Oh well. Hopefully, we can figure out where it is and get it fixed before we cover it for the winter, so that next spring all we have to do is take the cover off and we'll be ready to go. Jeff and Terry (a friend of his that specializes in pools) need to take a look at it. All I know about the pool is how to clean it (which I HATE to do) and how to relax in it. :)

Well, CSI:Miami is going to come on in a about 45 minutes, so I need to go get the kids stuff ready for school tomorrow so I can watch it uninterrupted.

What a weekend

Kelli, Adrienne and I went to Richmond again to see the Germain Crew. They have a dog Mitzi and they had left her here at a kennel until they closed on their new house. I volunteered to take Mitzi up this past weekend. So the girls and I picked her up and took her home. She was so excited to see somebody to take her away, she didn't even care that it was a complete stranger. But she was very happy to see her family again. After we got there, Carrie and I took the 4 kids to the Short Pump Town Center. Kelli and Sami rode the train while Adrienne and Zach played in the houses.

Then we took all the kids to Build A Bear. The kids had a blast as you can see.

Kelli made a white teddy bear with Pink undertones and named her "Pinky" I know not very original, but she goes with the last one she made that was white with blue undertones and named, yup you guessed it "Bluey".

Adrienne's purple hippo that you see getting her "shower" is Polka Dots. Adrienne tries very hard to say Polka Dots, but it comes out more like Dot Dots.

Now we're trying to get ready for Jeff to fly out in the morning to Florida. His softball team got the change to go to FL for the USSSA World Series at the Disney Sports Complex. I wish the girls and I could go watch them play, but it's too long of a drive for just a couple of days and it's too expensive to fly 5 people down. So I guess we will stay home and just enjoy the pool. That is if it doesn't rain here all weekend. Besides, Kelli has fall softball on Sunday, and it's the first one, so we don't want to miss that. Especially since they are only going to be playing for 5 weeks. I thinks its just a chance for the girls to get together and work on improving their skills. Kelli is excited about it. the nice part is that it is at Penn Forest Elementary, and they have a great playground right beside the fields, so Adrienne can play on the playground while Kelli plays softball.

the washer stopped, I guess I better go put stuff in the dryer so Jeff will have clothes for this weekend.

Getting Started

Ok, so I'm new to this. I figure this is the easiest way for me to keep up with everyone and let you all keep up with us.

Where to start, well the last month or so has been crazy. My best friend Carrie and her family got transferred to Richmond. Her daughter Sami is Kelli's best friend and her son Zach is Adrienne's best friend. And they have moved away. Fortunately, it's not too far. They had Sami's 6th birthday party here in Roanoke the weekend before Labor day. Well, as we were loading up to go home, Kelli was running around the parking lot, and she hit her head on the door to the hatch on my van and split her forehead open. She ended up with 3 stitches. This

was taken Sunday night (she did it on Sat.) right before we washed her hair. It looks worse than it really is.

She did really good when they put them in, not so good when they took them out a week later. She's doing better now, and it's healing great. In a few weeks, you won't even be able to see where she hit it.

Here's what it looked like the day we got them out. As you can see, its not really all that bad. And it looks even better now (a week later).

I'm trying to get some stuff together to go visit the Germains in Richmond this weekend. We are taking their dog Mitzi to them. They didn't close on their new house until this week, and couldn't have her in the corporate apartment they were staying in, so I voluntered to bring her up this weekend. We are going to take the kids to Build A Bear on Saturday after we get there. Kelli is so excited. I don't know if she's more excited about going to Build A Bear or going to see Sami. Adrienne is excited to go see Zach. She could care less about Build A Bear.

Jeff is playing in a softball tournament up in the Richmond Area on Saturday too, so I am hoping we can go by and see at least one of his games.

The girls started school a few weeks ago. This was their picture on the first day. Kelli loves 1st grade. And it's hard to believe Morgan is in 7th already. At least I still have a few years before Adrienne starts school. The girls are growing up so fast. Of course it's hard to believe that Jeff and I have been married for over 7 years already. It seems like we just started this family a couple of years ago. Here we are 7 years and 2 more kids later. And we haven't killed each other yet. There have been days that it was REALLY tempting (for both of us), but we're hanging in there.

Ok, time to go get the kids cleaned up and ready for bed. And finish packing for our weekend to Richmond.